


Short stories of long lives

by lasvegas_lights



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Angst, Humor, M/M, Post-Movie
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:14:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26070034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lasvegas_lights/pseuds/lasvegas_lights
Summary: A series of short stories about the Old Guard that take place after the film. Lots of Joe/Nicky.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 2
Kudos: 53





	1. Sleepless

**Author's Note:**

> These are just some moments in time that I had in my head that I needed to get down. Will be adding to them whenever I have a new idea. Hope you like them! And if anyone wants to help beta, let me know in the comments!

**Sleepless**

It doesn’t take a genius to know Nicky and Joe work better together and Nile isn’t surprised when 99% of the time she’s paired up with Andy on missions. It’s not often she gets a chance to watch them work, too busy focused on keeping herself and Andy safe. But when she does it’s hard to look away. They work as one, moving like it’s a dance not a fight for their lives. They duck and weave, two blades flashing in the light as they take the enemy down like it’s almost effortless.   
  
When the last soldiers have been killed, the two men find each other. They don’t have time for more than a quick visual assessment that the other is okay before they have to make a quick getaway. She’s still amazed by how much they seem to be able to communicate with just one look. Even outside of missions it's hard not to watch them together. The way they always seem to know where the other is even without looking. The care they show each other after a particularly rough outing even though their injuries healed just minutes after receiving them. 

Due to a series of events none of them were able to predict, their latest assignment forces them all to separate. Nicky and Nile find their way to an abandoned house in the middle of the German countryside to lay low for a couple of days before they can rendezvous with Andy and Joe.   
  
On the first night Nile finds a semi-comfortable spot to lay down, rolls her jacket up into a pillow and somehow manages to sleep. Neither of them has eaten properly since they got out of town but her exhaustion outweighs her hunger and she wakes up a few hours later somewhat rested. When she wakes up, Nicky is also awake. On the table in what used to be the kitchen is piles of berries, nuts and mushrooms foraged from the surrounding countryside. There’s also a bowl of water that looks a little murky.   
  
“Are those safe to eat?” She eyes the food up suspiciously. 

“Does it matter?” Nicky replies.   
  
“Guess not,” Nile shrugs and takes a handful of the red berries and stuffs them in her mouth. They’re tart, probably a little under-ripe but they stop her stomach from gurgling. She lifts the bowl to her lips and gulps down some of the water too. It doesn’t taste great but it’s better than nothing. She can’t wait to get back to civilization and order a steak and chips.   
  
With her thirst and hunger quenched, she sits down beside Nicky. It's still early enough that the sun is barely lighting up the room and there's nothing they can do but wait for the next forty-eight hours. Forty-eight hours in a building with no electricity, no books, certainly no wifi. She considers suggesting a sparring session to Nicky. Any chance she gets to learn a thing or two from the skilled warriors she takes but when she looks up at Nicky she notices the dark bags under his eyes.   
  
“Did you get any sleep?”  
  
“Hmm?” He plays dumb but Nile’s no idiot.   
  
“Not at all?”  
  
He’s stubborn for a few minutes and pretends like he doesn’t hear her, focusing instead on wiping down his sword with a rag he found somewhere.   
  
“ _ Nicky, _ ” she presses and he finally glances in her direction. She may not fully understand the silent conversations that pass between the two men but she’s picked up some of it during her time with them. The look in his eyes is unmistakable. “Oh.”  
  
“It’s fine, really,” he gives her a half shrug.   
  
“I’m guessing you two haven’t slept apart much in nine hundred years.”  
  
“Not for a while,” he admits.   
  
She hadn't even blinked the first time the couple had curled up together on the single bed in Goussainville and since then the sight of the two of them sleeping together has comforted her. There's something so normal and human about it, for a brief moment, seeing them with barely an inch of space between them, Joe’s arm curled protectively around his husband, his face pressed into the nape of Nicky’s neck, makes her forget that she’s immortal. It's a sight she's gotten very used to.   
  
She shifts slightly so she’s pressed up against him and lowers her head to rest on his shoulder. “I know it’s not the same, but if you need someone to be the big spoon, just let me know.”  
  
He lets out a soft laugh. “Thank you...not sure what Joe would say about that.”  
  
Nile grins, “He’d probably want to join in.”

Nicky’s laughter grows louder. “Yes, you’re probably right.”


	2. The Crossword

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one might be a little bit inspired by a scene in the pilot of The West Wing. Enjoy!

**The Crossword**

Nile tries, she _really_ tries to ignore the huffing and muttering coming from the chair across from her. The more she attempts to focus on the TV and the series finale of Killing Eve, the more frustrating the sounds of frustration become.   
  
Finally, after another loud sigh, she mutes the TV and twists herself round to face Nicky. “Okay, what’s got you so wound up?”  
  
“Twelve across is wrong,” he waves the folded newspaper that had been sat on his lap. “Can you believe this Joe? Twelve across is wrong.”  
  
Nile hears Andy groan and watches her sink deeper into the couch, her arm now flung across her eyes. “Not this again,” she mutters. Even after a year of being mortal, she still seemed to forget that drinking equalled hangovers and had been nursing hers for most of the day.   
  
Joe doesn’t look up from his book as he responds. “My love, we’ve been through this before,” he flips the pages. “ _Many times._ ”

Nicky turns the paper over to show Nile the half-filled crossword on the back page. “Look, see here?” He uses the tip of the pen to point to twelve across. She squints at the clue. It’s something to do with the Ottoman Empire. “The answer is wrong.”  
  
Joe finally looks up, turning over the corner of the page he’s on to bookmark it before closing the book. “Technically,” he agrees. “But our version of history has never matched up to what’s printed in the history books...as much as it frustrates us. ”  
  
Nile blinks, “Wait what?”   
  
“History is written by the victors,” Nicky quotes.   
  
“And by racist, homophobic, sexist so-called _‘scholars_ ’” Andy snorts. “Making it up to fit their preferred version of events.”  
  
“How much is accurate then?”  
  
Joe and Nicky share a look before they look back at her “thirty, forty percent?” Joe guesses.   
  
“Depends on the century” Nicky adds whilst looking back at Joe with a raised eyebrow. Joe rolls his eyes.   
  
Nile doesn't know what to feel with this new information. History had been one of her favourite classes at school. Up until this moment, she thought she could trust what she had learnt. How could history be _wrong_? “Okay, you need to start filling me in on how things really went down.”  
  
Joe laughs, “We can do that.”  
  
After a moment Nicky sighs and drops the newspaper down on the coffee table, “I give up,” rising from his chair, he leaves the room and heads in the direction of his and Joe’s bedroom.   
  
It takes a minute for Andy to sit up and look at Joe with a look of weary realisation, “He’s calling the paper, isn’t he.”  
  
Joe sighs and scrambles to his feet. “I’ll go.”


	3. Campfire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you like this short story! If anyone has any ideas for stories they want me to write, just let me know in the comments. I'm also looking for a beta reader/cheerleader if you want to get a sneak peek of my stories before anyone else.

**Campfire**

Nile soon learns that there’s absolutely no predicting where she’ll be laying her head that night. Sometimes it’s a cave or a long-abandoned church. Other times its five-star hotels or large sprawling villas. Being used to a hard single cot in whatever location the US Marine’s told her to go means that she never complains as long as she has a pillow, even if the pillow is nothing more than a rolled-up jacket.   
  
They’re in Russia, deep in the wilderness on the hunt for a rogue CIA operative supposedly hiding out on his way to hand over classified information to the KGB. There’s a chill in the air but at least there’s no snow on the ground. Out in the middle of nowhere, she wonders where they’ll end up resting for the night. Her thoughts are answered a few hours later when the sun has set too much for them to continue. Andy finds a small clearing and without even asking, the boys begin setting up camp. Nicky disappears into the dark woods to collect wood whilst Joe forms a circle out of stones to build a fire pit.   
  
“Won’t he see the smoke?” She questions their leader. At first Nile was worried she asked too many questions but Andy never looks bothered by them.   
  
“No moon tonight,” Andy answers with a nod up to the sky.   
  
Nile follows her gaze up and stares at the blackness above them. Out here the stars are so much brighter but even they aren't enough to illuminate smoke from a small fire, “Right.”  
  
She lowers her backpack to the ground and lifts out the blanket stuffed at the bottom. Whilst she lays out her bed for the night, Andy pulls a large log over to the fire pit and lowers herself down onto it. Wordlessly, Joe lifts his open palm in Andy’s direction and without blinking she digs into a pocket for a lighter and drops it into his hand.  
  
Nile wonders how many years will pass before she will be able to know what the others are thinking or be able to have a conversation with just facial expressions. How many centuries?  
  
Still on high alert, the sound of wood cracking underfoot makes her jerk up. She only relaxes when Nicky appears out of the darkness, both arms supporting a bundle of dry firewood. He and Joe get to work and within a few minutes, she begins to feel the heat from the flames. She opens her mouth to remark on their speed but remembers their age and the many years they must have spent building fires to sleep beside.  
  
Once the fire is stable, Joe shifts over to the log and sits down beside Andy. She passes over the flask in her hand and he takes a swig. Through the flames, flickering and dancing in the dark clearing, she watches Nicky shuffle over and settle between Joe’s legs, his back leaning against the log. Joe's knees tuck in tightly to hold Nicky in place and his hand unconsciously goes to Nicky's head to run through his hair. Nicky's eyes slide shut. The flask in Joe's other hand is lowered and without looking, Nicky takes it and drinks. When he offers it towards Nile, she smiles and declines. She knows there’ll be Vodka in the flask and she’s more of a whisky girl herself.   
  
“Isn’t this the part where we roast marshmallows and tell ghost stories?” She says and the boys laugh. Andy rolls her eyes.  “I was a girl scout you know.”  
  
“Oh yeah?” Joe grins.   
  
“For about a day, I got into trouble with the scout leader for running off from the group and jumping into the nearby lake. I nearly gave her a heart attack.”  
  
Joe’s grin widens and Nicky huffs out a laugh, his head shaking.   
  
Nile swallows as the memory continues “My dad, he uh, had to come get me. He was so silent on the trip home I thought he was so mad. Found out a few years later that he was quiet because he had found the whole thing hilarious but didn’t want to encourage me...he was trying not to laugh the whole journey home” Nile’s eyes lower to the glowing centre of the fire until it hurts to look.   
  
“Hey,” Andy calls over and Nile glances back up at her questioningly. “Hold on to that memory okay? Even if it hurts to remember,”  _ Because there might come a time when you don’t remember your family at all _ goes unspoken. 


End file.
